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Saturday, 13 August 2011

Dirty dark Tamils!

Oh really? I stand before the full length mirror trying to figure out if i really am dark. The darkophobia of those fair and lovely days are back again with a bang! I try to switch on all the lights and check for changes in the result- obviously, drawing a flack. I loved to retort when someone said i was dark, as i was only "dusky". My teen age dreams were always filled with visions of me bathed in milky white complexion. Poor Dad! If he had accounted the Fair and Lovely tubes his darling would have bought, he might have ended up with a heart attack! Ah! Fair and lovely- the God sent magical potion that is supposed to convert Obama to a white man!

Image courtesy- mirroremage.com

There are dusky diva friends who apply anything on their faces- right from egg white ( yuck!), papaya paste, multani mitti and even donkey's milk(!) There are others who always 'dove'd their faces- hoping to whiten their skin and another lot who apply face powders so much on their faces, that would put any whitewashed house to shame! It is not uncommon to see teen age bandit queens who cover every micro inch of their exposed skin with anything they could lay their hands on, starting from duppattas, hand gloves, coolers and even rags! People down South are so obsessed with fairer complexion, aren't we? And here comes the rude shocker- one Ms. Maureen Chao stands up and tells us, we Tamils are dirty and dark. Wow! what a remark from a Vice Consul! A round of applause please....There!

Dark- that i can understand, but 'dirty'? All people i know from Down South take head bath every morning. There is one Ms. Cleanomaniac in our office who washes, scrubs and even scales out her hands every time before and after eating. Another one washes, rewashes and does the same tiffin box till the sides start squeaking and pleading her to stop! Taking a head bath every morning after applying coconut oil everyday is almost a sacred ritual to us. Our turmeric, amba huldi ( curcuma aromatica- kasthuri manjal), herbal bathing powder ( personally dried, gound and applied by grandmas) and shikakai- all sweet smelling aromatic cleansers that we use in tonnes- and still there is someone who can say we are dirty??? Conservative Mothers don't even entertain bed coffee sans brushing...

Picture of US Vice Consul Ms Maureen Chao- courtesy google images

Is it the pot calling the kettle black? Nah! It is Chao calling Tamils dirty! Fair skinned foreigners who don't brush, but chew a mint every morning, who shower once or twice a week....my, my...Ms Chao must get her facts right before throwing stones on us. Would it be unfair if we protest against her remarks? I hope not. Let them call her back- the last thing we need is a racist US Vice Consul in our Tamilian Soil.

38 comments:

I know! What do they know about how clean or unclean we are! And who are they to judge us?!If white equalled clean even an american beggar will be spic and span while our moms and athais would be filthy!such judgemental idiots!

Your pen have got the power to question anyone. Btw, you are rocking in this post right from mutani matti to shikakai, we are the best. I agree to the bed coffee, bathing, "குலனாலும் குளித்து குடி கந்தையானாலும் கசக்கி கட்டு"...

Thoughtful post acknowledging the times of India. Keep rocking frend...

Yeh... Nivedita- a round of applause for you. So what is the problem about being dark? I am dark and I am not ashamed of it. My skin does not turn blotchy and red and I keep it clean. This Chao lady.. is her skin white I wonder or is it yellow? Whatever be the colour of one's skin, no one has the right to make such racist remarks!

nicely written nive......the problem with americans is that they cant come into terms that we indians are matching them and in the path of becoming a global superpower. i think this factor makes them to talk in such a manner to demean us. never mind... as rightly poined out by sukanya WHO ARE THEY to judge about our cleanliness and we dont need their certificate.

I feel your anger as i read...so what's the problem with been dark huh?....dirty is relative! The whites are born pink, turn red in the sun, turn blue when cold, then palely white when dead! During winter, they hardly have their baths! use a lot of deodorant!

The last thing that She should have remembered is that America originally belonged to people who were essentially black. So if they are so proud of their fairness that they relegate Tamilian or any other Indian, or any person for that sake as dirty just because of half cooked facts and prejudices, let them live in crisis when their greatest service support declines to work, India.

Well, I am not at all affected by all this, for I consider myself as a great looking, dark skinned southern belle, and she a white wrinkled and sun burnt, stinking, witch from no where.Happy Independence Day!Let us celebrate our freedom from the whites.

I think that as a vice-consul Chao did not take care of her words.However, is it even remotely possible that she DID NOT mean what you are interpreting it as?Several news articles quote her as saying 'my skin became dirty and dark like a Tamilians'If one were to punctuate this differently, then this phrase would have a completely different meaning - "my skin became dirty, and dark like a Tamilian's"In this example, Dirty is NOT associated with a Tamilian, but dark skin is.So if this was indeed her intended statement, then all she is claiming is that the delay in her train journey made her skin dirty, and also made her skin dark like a Tamilian's.Now I was not there when she delivered her lecture, and so I am not aware of the context in which she uttered these words, whether it was appropriate etc. but if we were to give her the benefit of doubt, then all she is claiming is that Tamilians have dark skin. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THAT?Tamilians descended from the original Dravidians are indeed darker skinned. Does anyone go to the Madurai Meenakshi temple and now bow down to Goddess Meenakshi because she is sculpted out of black stone? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!So why cant we just accept ourselves as we are, stop being petty and move on with more important things in our lives and for our country??!!Jai Hind.

It's fact that tamilians are a dark skinned race.They are darker than africans.Tamil people always want to look fair,but never openly admit it.You will find hundreds of beauty parlors in cities like Chennai,Coimbatore.

nicely written cloud ....I agree this information ... The Tamil alphabets is well suited to writing literary Tamil, centamil. However it is ill-suited to writing colloquial Tamil, koduntamil. During the 19th century, attempts were made to create a written version of the colloquial spoken language. Nowadays the colloquial written language appears mainly in school books and in passages of dialogue in fiction.

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Happy-go-lucky, bubbly, enthusiastic, hard working and highly opinionated, i am just ME. A colorful mosaic of fun, warmth and smiles, i always oscillate between both extremes- blissfully happy and terribly melancholic. Know me more, read my blog and feel what it is to be CLOUD NINE!